United Nations, Dec 11: UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher warned of a severe humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Overlapping shocks, restrictive policies affecting women and girls, the longstanding impact of decades of conflict and chronic poverty, as well as massive funding cuts this year, have left Afghanistan in a severe humanitarian crisis, Fletcher told the UN Security Council in a briefing on Wednesday.

Nearly 22 million people in Afghanistan will need help in 2026, making it the world’s third-largest humanitarian crisis, only after Sudan and Yemen, he said.

“Our ask is $1.7 billion to target 17.5 million people. But in response to the funding reality, we have further hyper-prioritised our plan to target 3.9 million people in most urgent need of life-saving help,” said Fletcher.

For the first time in four years, the number of people facing hunger has gone up in Afghanistan, now reaching 17.4 million. And essential services — already insufficient and uneven across the country — are stretched to a breaking point as Afghan refugees return in record numbers, he noted.

Over 2.6 million Afghans returned in 2025, bringing the number who have returned in the last two years to over 4 million. The situation for those returnees is particularly precarious. Many arrived with few possessions, hosted in already distressed communities and in an economy that cannot provide for them, he said.

Women and children made up 60 per cent of all returnees this year, returning to a country where women and girls are denied opportunities to study, work, and even in some cases, receive health care, he noted.

With 2.5 million Afghans in Pakistan, a large majority of whom have recently seen their legal status revoked, the potential impact of further mass returns is alarming, warned Fletcher.

Despite limited funding, the United Nations and partners have continued to deliver aid as best as they can, he said, adding that the UN Central Emergency Response Fund has released more than 40 million dollars in additional funding.

However, increasing human rights restrictions, particularly on Afghan women staff, have made life for many Afghans ever more difficult, and created extra burdens on the implementation of the world body’s humanitarian work, he said.

Humanitarians are working in an incredibly complex environment, with operational, financial and reputational risks, including pressures to amend local beneficiary lists, bureaucratic and administrative impediments, maneuvers to influence staff and contractor selection, restrictions on Afghan women staff, and the potential risk of aid diversion, said Fletcher.

Underfunding has forced service closures and resulted in scaled-back assistance to millions, he said.

This winter is the first in years with almost no international food distribution. As a result, only about 1 million of the most vulnerable people have received food assistance during the lean season in 2025, compared with 5.6 million last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

Some 1.1 million children are missing out on life-saving nutrition as 305 nutrition service delivery points have been closed. With 3.7 million children in need of nutrition, including 1.7 million at risk of death if not treated, the results will be catastrophic, he said.

Up to 422 health facilities were closed in 2025, leaving 3 million people without access to life-saving care, he noted.

“As we look towards 2026, we risk a further contraction of life-saving help — at a time when food insecurity, health needs, strain on basic services, and protection risks are all rising,” warned Fletcher.

Washington, Dec 11: The United States and India are intensifying cooperation on counterterrorism and intelligence-sharing, senior experts told lawmakers.

During the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia hearing on the US–India strategic partnership here on Wednesday (local time), eminent American experts on South Asia warned that Pakistan’s continued use of militant proxies and China’s expanding footprint in the region demand deeper alignment between Washington and New Delhi.

Sameer Lalwani of the German Marshall Fund told members that counterterrorism coordination between the two countries “goes back since the Mumbai attacks in 2008” and today encompasses “law enforcement, intelligence sharing… counterterrorism (and) counterterror financing.”

He cited India’s close cooperation with the United States at the Financial Action Task Force and the role of the Combined Maritime Force, which he said is undertaking “a lot of interdiction of illicit… trafficking, shipping arms, drugs and financing, all that sort of finance terrorism.”

Lalwani said India’s capabilities are advancing rapidly, with new “space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” assets and “AI tools and applications for better data fusion” that will allow both countries to “more rapidly address threats”. As these systems evolve, he said, “We’ll start to see more effective deterrence and counterterrorism operations.”

Committee Chairman Bill Huizenga highlighted the momentum in bilateral engagement, noting that the United States and India hosted the 21st Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism this week, where officials discussed “emerging threats, terror recruitment and financing”. He said the dialogue reflects “significant opportunities” to expand operational, intelligence, and policy coordination.

But alongside optimism, the testimony featured pointed warnings — especially about Pakistan.

Dhruva Jaishankar from ORF America told lawmakers that Pakistan has a “long and well-documented history of using non-state terrorist proxies against India”. He stressed that India’s experience has shown that “third-party mediation has often contributed to Pakistan’s adventurism”, a reference to past crises where US involvement, however well-intentioned, unintentionally emboldened Pakistani military planners.

Jeff Smith of the Heritage Foundation also underscored Pakistan’s centrality to India’s security calculus.

Quoting former President Trump’s earlier criticism of Islamabad, he reminded members: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years. And they have given us nothing but lies and deceit… They have given safe haven to the terrorists we hunt… with little help. No more.”

Smith added that “a great deal of that terrorism has emanated from Pakistan,” arguing that Washington and New Delhi “need to do more… to convince the Pakistani military to stop using terrorist groups as assets of their foreign policy.”

Lawmakers noted that the recent attack in Kashmir — also mentioned during testimony as having been carried out by “gunmen from a well-known Pakistani terrorist group” — has heightened Indian concerns.

Smith recounted that after the attack, India launched strikes on terrorist training camps, leading to an exchange involving “missiles, artillery and drones”. He repeated what US President Donald Trump has been claiming, that the US intervened diplomatically to establish a ceasefire.

However, New Delhi has maintained that Pakistan had urged India for a ceasefire agreement, and the decision was bilateral without any third-party involvement.

Witnesses said the evolving threat landscape now requires fusing counterterrorism with a wider Indo-Pacific strategy. Lalwani noted that India’s growing maritime capabilities — including contributions to standing missions in the Indian Ocean — support broader deterrence goals, adding that cooperation in “anti-submarine warfare, things like that… is also happening with the Quad.”

Jaishankar emphasised that India’s approach is increasingly regional. He said India is now “providing military equipment to countries, including the Philippines”, listing “anti-ship cruise missiles” among recent transfers, reflecting a broader effort to counter coercive actors and strengthen security partnerships.

Experts, during the testimony, made clear that counterterrorism remains one of the strongest pillars of the US–India relationship. Huizenga said maintaining momentum in intelligence cooperation and operational coordination is essential at a moment when adversaries “are redrawing borders by force” and testing democratic partnerships across South Asia.